Updates

Fall 2013

A contingent of Citrix representatives was recently summoned to campus in order to
examine the University's implementation of virtualization software because there was
a substantial number of applications that were virtualized that are rarely used. In
addition, there were some technical issues that needed to be addressed. A plan is
being initiated in order to improve the VDI project.

Previous Updates

August 2013

ITD recently deployed several Citrix XenApp published desktops (virtualization technology)
to Wyse thin terminals at the Parking Services Building and Athletics Department call
centers. Eighteen Citrix desktops were installed in the Parking Services Building
and five were deployed to the Department of Athletics.

In addition, the Citrix team fulfilled a multitude of requests in the past month for
ITD including the deployment of virtualization technology to the Data Center and Telecom
staff for Active Directory management (remote server administration tools); Microsoft
Exchange management tools to Data Center and Telecom staff for Exchange and Microsoft
Lync administration ; remote desktop connections to Lync infrastructure serves to
Telecom staff for Lync administration; and the installation of customized versions
of Internet Explorer (IE 8, 9, and 19 for Web developers to test MTSU Web content
rendering); IE 9 with Java 6 update 23 to Data Center and AISS staff for UC4/AppWorx;
and IE 9 with the latest Java 7 for Argos users).

April 2013

Beginning on March 29, the University began experiencing interruptions with virtual
desktop services across campus. The issues contributing to this outage have been identified
and are currently being addressed. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

January 2013

Progress continues to be made on the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) project,
also known as C@M or "Cloud at Middle." The project aims to deliver software applications
and services to students and faculty anywhere they are and on any device. For example,
when a student logs into the network from any device (including thin clients), they
will be able to access the software associated with their courses from any location.

Technicians have virtualized approximately 41 MTSU employee computers with two being
used by fulltime staff. The University has also published three Banner-related applications,
including AppXtender Desktop Application Generator, AppXtender Desktop Document Manager,
and Banner Spreadsheet Budgeting.

Approximately 653 student computers have been virtualized, 14 of which were recently
virtualized in the Student Services area in KUC 308.

Meanwhile, 35 student/public stations have been virtualized in the Walker Library;
11 stations on the first floor (four under the stairs, one in a cubby across from
the LTS, and six at the end of the stacks in the center of the building). Eight of
them can be found on the second floor, eight on the third floor, and another eight
are located on the fourth floor.

These stations are only utilized for the exploration of the library's catalogue system
via a browser and are used for the sole purpose of locating academic resources.

The library also has two "test" machines that have been virtualized. The first machine
has the standard classroom image and the other machine has a personalized image with
common software that is found within the Digital Media Studio (DMS). These machines
are being tested by staff/admin/faculty only and a log is being kept of issues and
concerns.

October 2012

Having trouble with your flashdrive? Try the following steps:

Insert your jump drive before an app session (not an app) is started otherwise your
Flash drive may not be seen.

Citrix creates a session when you start an app if one is not already present. The
session is basically a pipeline to an app server. The session stays connected even
after you close the app. Citrix does this to speed up the start of the next app. When
you start up succeeding apps they use this existing session (pipeline) because it
is faster than creating a new one. If the jump drive is not inserted before creating
the session (pipeline) it may not appear to any apps afterwards.

There are two ways to close a session used by the last person.

Method #1:

Right click the receiver in the system tray.

Select online sessions (if it is not present then there are no sessions).

Select connection center and disconnect any active session.

Plug in your Flash/jumpdrive.

Start the app.

Method #2:

Press Alt+Ctrl+Del then log off.

General Problems Accessing Programs, etc.

If you have a problem with a virtualized machine try:

Right Clicking the black Citrix receiver icon at the bottom right and selecting 'preferences.'
Then right click 'online plug-in' and click 'refresh applications.' This should show
any missing icons on the desktop.

If a PC doesn't have a virtual desktop try alt+ctrl+del and then log off, it will
auto logon.

August 2012

Approximately 180 applications have been added to the virtual server; 550 classroom
PCs have been virtualized.

About 15 employee work stations have been virtualized as of August 13, 2012.

July 2012

Approximately 406 classroom desktop machines have been virtualized; over 100 applications
have been virtualized as well. Most of the classroom PCs in the Cason-Kennedy Nursing
Building are completed.

June 2012

Rollout for University employees and instructional learning PCs commenced in April,
and the remote access schedule is set to be activated on August 25.

As of June 2012, the following rooms have undergone the virtualization process: